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W hen the NCAA handed down its sanctions against Penn State in July 2012, many college football analysts said the Nittany Lions were headed for a lost decade. They felt that Penn State would be lucky to win more than a handful of games during the 2012 season, and some openly wondered whether Penn State would ever regain its stature as one of the top 10 or 15 pro- grams in the country. Since then, the Lions have posted ;ve consecutive winning seasons, including a remarkable return to form this past year in which they went 11-3, claimed the Big Ten championship and fell just short of capturing their ;rst Rose Bowl crown since 1995. Their performance during that span has put an end to much of the skepticism. But not all. There clearly remains some uncertainty as to whether this program is really, truly back. With their performance in 2016, the Nittany Lions seemingly set the stage for a run at the College Football Playoff this coming year. But in a Jan. 10 col- umn, Paul Myerberg of USA Today put together a preliminary ranking of the nation's top teams and didn't have the Lions in his top four. In fact, he had them behind two other Big Ten East Division rivals. His top 10 teams for the 2017 season were as follows: 1. Florida State, 2. Alabama, 3. Ohio State, 4. Michigan, 5. Southern California, 6. Oklahoma, 7. Washington, 8. Penn State, 9. Clemson and 10. Oklahoma State. There is no question in my mind that his selection of Penn State as the eighth-best team in the country was a fair and legitimate evaluation. But I was somewhat surprised by his reason- ing. "The Nittany Lions' biggest post- regular-season development was of- fensive coordinator Joe Moorhead's decision to return," Myerberg wrote. "That, along with the return of QB Trace McSorley and RB Saquon Barkley, will ensure they will be even better next season. Recapturing this year's magic won't be easy, but there is zero reason to think Penn State is poised to take a step back." Moorhead's decision to pass up a number of potential head coaching op- portunities and instead return to Penn State for his second season on the staff was indeed big news in December, and there's no arguing that McSorley and Barkley make up one of the most dy- namic offensive tandems in the coun- try. But this is also a team that returns nine starters on offense and seven starters on defense, and it's the overall talent level, not just the names at the top of the marquee, that makes it so dangerous. That's not to diminish the names at the top of the marquee. Barkley shared Big Ten O

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